Mother, 1-year-old son killed in Alaska polar bear attack

A polar bear chased several residents around a tiny, isolated Alaska Native whaling village, killing a mother and her 1-year-old son in an extremely rare attack before another community member shot and killed the bear, authorities said.

The fatal mauling, the first in more than 30 years in Alaska, happened Tuesday near the school in Wales, an isolated  Bering Strait coastal community located on the westernmost tip of the North American mainland — about 80 kilometers from Russia — that is no stranger to coexisting with polar bears. 

Summer Myomick of Saint Michael and her son, Clyde Ongtowasruk, were killed in the attack, Alaska State Troopers said in a statement.

Myomick's parents declined interviews with The Associated Press when reached Wednesday at their home.

"It's very, very sad for Saint Michael right now, and Wales," said Virginia Washington, the Saint Michael city administrator.

She said Myomick split time between the two communities.

"She was a very sweet lady," Washington said.

Like many far-flung Alaska villages, the predominantly Inupiaq community of roughly 150 people organizes patrols when the bears are expected in town, from July through early November, which is before the sea ice forms and bears head out onto the frozen landscape to hunt seals.

That makes what happened this week almost unheard of because polar bears are normally far out on the ice in the dead of winter and not close to villages, said Geoff York, the senior director of conservation at Polar Bear International, a conservation group. The last fatal polar bear encounter in Alaska was in 1990.

"I would have been walking around the community of Wales probably without any (bear) deterrents because it's historically the time of year that's safe," said York, who has decades of experience studying polar bears. "You don't expect to run into bears because they'd be out on the sea ice hunting seals and doing their thing."

Poor weather and no runway lights at the Wales gravel air strip prevented troopers and wildlife officials from making it to Wales Tuesday after the attack. Attempts were being made again Wednesday.

When asked to describe the mood in Wales on Wednesday, Dawn Hendrickson, the school principal, called it "traumatic." Classes were cancelled, and counselors were being made available.

She said there have been no announcements for memorials for the two victims yet. "We are still in the beginning phase," she said.

It's unclear if this attack was related to climate change, but it's consistent with what is expected as the Arctic continues to warm at four times the rest of the Earth, changing the ecosystem in ways that are still not fully understood, York said.